This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 from my application IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Jan. 26, 2000 and there duly assigned Serial No. 00-3668.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an apparatus capable of displaying appropriate display information even during the system initialization process, and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus prints an image corresponding to received print data on a paper in a device such as a copier, printer, or facsimile. Generally, image forming apparatuses comprise a display device and a central processing unit (CPU), where the CPU controls what is displayed on the display device. However, when an image forming apparatus is powered on, the image forming apparatus goes through an initialization or booting process. During this initialization process, often there is no display on the display screen. Occasionally, the initialization process fails and the user has no way of knowing what happened to the image forming apparatus as nothing is displayed on the display screen.
What is needed is an apparatus and a method for displaying information on the display during the initialization process. What is also needed is a method and apparatus for displaying an error message on the display screen should the initialization process fail.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to display information on a display device during an initialization process performed after power is applied to an image forming apparatus.
It is also an object to provide an error message on the display device of an image forming apparatus if the initialization process should be unsuccessful.
It is further an object to provide a new design for the controller of an image forming apparatus that allows messages to be displayed on the display device of an image forming apparatus while the image forming apparatus is being initialized.
It is still further an object to provide a new design for the controller of an image forming apparatus that allows error messages to be displayed on the display device of the image forming apparatus should the initialization process be unsuccessful.
It is yet an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus and a driving method thereof, which is capable of displaying its operation status on a display device even while the image forming apparatus performs an initialization process.
A first aspect of the present invention is achieved by an image forming apparatus having a controller for controlling the image forming apparatus, a print engine for printing an image controlled by the controller on a printer, and a display device for displaying received display information. The controller includes a central processing unit (CPU) for controlling a system and performing an initialization process when a reset signal is input, a display device control unit for controlling the display device, and an initial display control unit for controlling the display device control unit so that set display information may be displayed on the display device while the CPU performs the initialization process when the reset signal is input, in which the display device control unit displays display information input from the CPU on the display device after the initialization process.
A second aspect of the present invention is also achieved by an image forming apparatus. Here, an initialization diagnostic unit is implemented instead of an initial display control unit for controlling the display device control unit so that an error message may be displayed in the display device when an initialization process completion signal is not input from the CPU during a first time period based on time during which a reset signal is input.
A third aspect of the present invention is achieved by a method for driving an image forming apparatus, which comprises the steps of: determining whether or not a reset signal is input via an initial display control unit for controlling a display device control unit so that set display information may be displayed on a display device; displaying display information set by controlling a display device control unit for displaying received display information on the display device while an initialization process is performed when it is determined that the reset signal is input; and displaying display information received from a central processing unit (CPU) for controlling a system, after the initialization process is completed.
A fourth aspect of the present invention is also achieved by a method for driving an image forming apparatus. The method for driving an image forming apparatus comprises the steps: determining whether or not a reset signal is input via an initialization diagnostic unit for controlling a display device control unit together with a central processing unit (CPU); determining whether an initialization process completion signal is input from the CPU during a set first time period when it is determined that the reset signal is input; and controlling the display device control unit so that an error message may be displayed in a display device when an initialization process completion signal is not input during the first time period.